Ps 25:1 . [A Psalm] of David. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
This Psalm starts off very curious. The words a Psalm are not found in the Hebrew text. It simply starts off lidavid or to David or unto David. Translators are not sure what to do with that. Most simply paraphrase and say: A Psalm of David. The NIV says of David which is a rare us of the preposition Lamed but appropriate. The Holman Bible simply says Davdic ignoring the preposition Lamed and the ISV, KJV 2,000 (sounds like a race car), NKJV and the ASV simply leaves out the whole word and don’t even mention David at all. I have no idea why they leave it out completely. The Septuagint says The Psalm of David. I think the Septuagint reflects the intent of the Hebrew lidavid in that the preposition Lamed for unto or to is an Hebraic way of saying according to David or assigned to David. Thanks to the discoveries found in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible translators are giving the Septuagint greater consideration as it has been found to be more accurate than the Masoretic text.
I have my own thoughts on this. I believe what David says next is so radical that the scribes were not assigning this to David to give him credit, you know like a byline. But to give this next phrase credibility. We accept the fact that David not only heard from God but wrote this under the full inspiration of God. To assign this to David is basically saying that this is not some old slob coming down the pike writing this, but this is David who knew the heart of God and through him God spoke His heart and hence this is a Divine Word of God. This Psalm gives a correct and accurate understanding of God’s heart.
So what is so radical about saying,“Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul?” I was reading the works of Rabbi Moses Ibn Ezra aka Ha Sallah (writer of penitential prayers). He was an Eleventh Century Spanish Jewish philosopher who focused his poetry and philosophy on the relationship between God and man. As a result of his intense prayer life and search for the heart of God he saw a play on the word lift up.
The word used in the Hebrew is ’ase‘ which could and most likely comes from the root word nasa which means to lift up or exalt. However, David drops the first letter of the word, the Nun and puts in an Aleph. This puts the verb into a Qal imperfect singular first person form. At least when the Masoretic text came along they added the vowels which would confirm this grammatical expression. However, considering David’s style of writing, I have to question why he would put this into a Qal form (simple verbal form) and not a Piel form (intensive verbal form), unless he was making a play on the root word ish which means fire or to burn or be burnt. There are really two possible root words here, nasa’ to lift up and ish fire. David is offering up his soul or his nephesh up to God. But, by not putting this in a Piel form which he would normally do, Rabbi Moses Ibn Ezra suggest that he is also saying that he is offering up his soul as a burnt offering, a true sacrifice. This is pretty radical thinking during the tabernacle and temple period. Yet, David was writing in a poetic metaphoric style and hence he is comparing his soul to that of an animal offered up as a sacrifice to God. However, this animal had to be without blemish or spot and thus David is offering his nephesh or soul up to God to cleanse it and make it without blemish or spot. I think Rabbi Moses Ibn Ezra is correct in saying that this prayer of David was a true expression of repentance as this play on words is David’s plea to God to restore his soul and cleanse it so it would be an acceptable sacrifice to God.
You know, through the shed blood of Jesus our souls are made pure and clean. Did you ever stop to consider the next step after God has cleanse your soul and made it pure, burned away all that filth in your soul leaving you with a pure soul without blemish or spot. Yippee do, so what do you do with a pure soul? Maybe you could now offer to God what you could not offer without the shed blood of His Son. You can offer your soul back to Him as a burnt offering pure and without blemish or spot.
Have you ever offered up your soul as a burnt offer, and sacrifice to God? Have you ever prayed: “Heavenly Father, I want to truly repent, and have a change of mind for my sin(s) but my soul keeps reminding me that if I come clean I have some pretty serious consequences to pay (back taxes, apologies, returning a stolen item etc.) and my soul is blocking me from true repentance. So Father, here it is, I am lifting up nasa’ my soul to you and giving it to you as a burnt offering ish. Use the blood of your Son to cleanse it, purify it, make it without spot and blemish so it is an acceptable burnt offering.
You see David and his soul never really got along too well. I have the same problem and I suspect you too have a similar problem. Check out Psalms 103:1 “Bless the Lord O my soul.” This is in a Piel (intensive) imperative (command) form. He is literally picking his soul up by the collar, slamming it against wall and screaming at it: “Soul, I am sick and tired of you and your whining. Now get with the program and start blessing the Lord.”
Do you ever try to praise and worship God? Or maybe just seek to pray to God and your soul keeps nagging you, “Well, well, now look at you thinking you can praise, worship or even pray to a holy God after all the nasty things you did. How about yesterday when you lost your cool with that driver who cut you off and you gave him the one finger salute. Tut, tut, that was not very Christian of you and now here you are trying to praise and pray to God, do you honestly think He will accept your praise and answer your prayer? I think not.” You know the enemy is constantly whisper his little lies to your soul or nephesh and because you have not been offering it up to God as a burnt offering to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus so the old devil can get his digs in there, you just sit back and scratch your head and say; “Ya know, your right.” David had to continually, like the Apostle Paul offer up his body and soul as a living sacrifice unto God so he could point his finger at the enemy and say, “Devil, you’re a liar, I have just offered this soul up to God as a living sacrifice to be cleansed and purified of that one finger salute so I can indeed praise, worship and pray to Him.
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